Thursday morning arrived with one pressing question for the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia – what would be the immediate response to the rejection by a majority of the House of Bishops of basic orthodoxy on the doctrine of marriage? The answer came at almost the very beginning of business. Following morning […]
Kevin and I discuss where we’re up to at General Synod.
A momentous day has closed at the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia. In a key vote to affirm a Statement on Marriage as the union of a man and a woman a majority House of Bishops showed themselves to be in a very different place to the overwhelming majority of the rest […]
Day 2 of General Synod has drawn to a close and I think it’s fair to say that the consensus is that, all in all, it’s been a good day. While most of the attention will naturally have been on the closing debate, we spent the morning and first half of the afternoon working through […]
General Synod 18 of the Anglican Church of Australia is now well underway with a full day of business already dealt with. First order of business was the Presidential Address [pdf] from Primate Archbishop Smith of Adelaide. The Primate set a gentle encouraging tone as he spoke to the almost 300 delegates. His talk outlined […]
The Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, Archbishop Philip Freier of Melbourne, has announced that he will not seek reelection as Primate. He will stand down on 31 March 2020 in order to allow sufficient time for an election and for his successor to prepare for the pivotal General Synod in June. In a […]
A prominent group of Melbourne Anglicans comprising both senior clergy and lay people today issued an open letter to the Bishop of Wangaratta (the Rt Rev John Parkes and the synod (diocesan parliament) of the Diocese of Wangaratta urging them not to pull away from the rest of the Anglican Church of Australia by acting […]
The Synod of the Diocese of Grafton, which met this last weekend, has passed a number of controversial motions and heard a question which indicate a walking away from aspects of the national church constitution and the recent Bishops’ Agreement. As we reported last week, the Synod debated asking the General Synod to introduce same-sex […]
The Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Grafton, meeting this weekend 21-23 June, is to debate a motion asking the General Synod to implement same-sex marriage. The full text of the motion, proposed by Dean Greg Jenks, is 24. That this Synod encourage the 2020 General Synod to adopt optional provisions for the blessing of […]
This past weekend saw synods in the metropolitan dioceses of Melbourne and Adelaide here in Australia. We’ve previously reported on the proposed motions there (Melbourne, Adelaide) to provide for blessings of same-sex marriages contracted by civil celebrants. As is becoming clear, these motions are part of a coordinated campaign across the whole country. In both […]
